Thursday, July 20, 2006

"Samantha Bradley-Hojaij and her two young children had been staying in Beirut for the summer holidays but their apartment had its windows blown out in the fighting. "

"Among the Britons is Carolanne Nehme, from Glasgow, who is on holiday with her husband and nine-month-old baby.

They had gathered for evacuation on the sea front with hundreds of other foreign passport holders but their UN-chartered ferry was forced to turn back as it did not have clearance from the Israeli navy.

Mrs Nehme said: "It's absolute chaos, we're stuck.

"We came here (to the sea front) because we were told to, we were told to get on a boat out of here.

"It's so disappointing, an absolute disaster. It's really inhumane the way they are treating people."

"Maria Noujeim, from Portsmouth, has lived in Beirut for the last 15 years and is married to Joe, a 49-year-old Lebanese national.

They fled their apartment in Hadath, near the airport, hours before HMS Gloucester set sail, with their three children, Mario 12, Jessica nine, and five-year-old Michael.

Mrs Noukeim said: "My concern was the children, they were watching the bombing from the apartment every night - the planes coming over, the bombs dropping and the airport blowing up.

"We wanted to leave straightaway because of the children but we have left my husband's family, including his mother who is on her own.

"It is very hard and it has been quite emotional."

The good life in the sun's over, darlin'.

Adjust.

Right now, the British government's determination to act as travel agent of last resort for British citizens who elect to holiday in, and in the case of Maria Noujiem make their lives in, Levantine hellholes means that the citizenship of those being 'rescued' is being valued more highly than mine.

Those of us who don't travel and who are taxed into the ground to maintain armed forces for the defence of the homeland are receiving no value from this exercise. What's in it for us?